The American private equity giant TPG is closing in on a £1bn-plus deal to buy the company which supplies the electronic patient record system used by the majority of Britain’s GPs.
Sky News has learnt that TPG has struck the outline of a deal to acquire Optum’s UK operation, which is owned by the New York-listed healthcare giant UnitedHealth Group.
Sources said the deal, which could be announced in the coming weeks, was likely to be worth in the region of £1.2bn-£1.4bn, although they cautioned that it had yet to be finalised and could still fall apart.
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If concluded, the transaction will come just two years after the business last changed hands.
One private equity source suggested that TPG could seek to combine Optum UK with Nextech, a US-based provider of electronic medical record software to doctors’ practices.
Optum UK’s business includes EMIS, which was taken over by the UnitedHealth subsidiary in 2023 in a deal worth about £1.2bn.
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The takeover was engineered under the stewardship of Sir Andrew Witty, the former GlaxoSmithKline boss who has now stepped down as UnitedHealth’s chief executive.
The US-listed company’s stock has fallen by exactly a third over the last year, leaving it with a market capitalisation on Tuesday of just under $310bn.
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Bank of America has been advising on the sale process, which also drew interest from buyout firms including Blackstone.
The prospective sale formed part of efforts by Sir Andrew’s successor, Stephen Hemsley, to arrest the company’s alarming valuation decline, they added.
Optum’s takeover of EMIS was approved in September 2023 by British competition regulators following an in-depth Phase 2 investigation.
TPG and Optum both declined to comment.
